Freddie Kissoon’s article reproduced from the Kaieteur newspaper

During the seventies, when I was a UG student, I pointed out a criticism that was made against Professor Clive Thomas. I was young and radical and wanted to fight all the time. So I told Dr. Thomas he must reply. With his characteristic smile, he said that it is not everything you reply to; some things you just don’t dignify. I always remember those words of Clive Thomas.

I will not dignify the nonsense Vishnu Bisram writes about me. Every Guyanese who follows political debate in this country and every reader of the newspapers’ letter section will know by now that over the past two years, Mr. Bisram has failed to name the American high school he works at.

Quite shockingly, he got his side-kick, a person by the name of Anand Boodram, to write a letter in this newspaper stating that Mr. Bisram makes up for the time when he is in another countries doing polls by teaching his students in the summer recess. How foolish! I have been a teacher my whole life and teachers in schools and universities have to function from September to June in a calendar year.

All over the world, including Canada and Guyana where I have experience, and in the US where Mr. Bisram lives, that is how the school curriculum is set.

Over the past five years, he has failed to cite the address, telephone numbers and names of the leadership of an organization that employs him to do polls, called NACTA. There is no such organization. Fortunately, for Guyanese readers, David de Caires, before he died, discontinued publishing the fictional polls of Mr. Bisram and told him that he is free to use the letter pages of the Stabroek.

That is where Bisram’s current poll data can be found. I ignore the mediocre ramblings of the Honorary Consul of Guyana in Barbados, Norman Faria. No one should pay attention to his foolish propaganda. Propaganda can be astute and interesting but in Faria’s case, it is extremely childish. Trust the PPP Government to employ incompetent people.

Faria’s latest outpouring against me relates to my criticism of Cuba. There is no need to mention his glowing tribute about democracy in Cuba. Faria can eulogize imaginary freedoms and fictional democracy in Cuba because he lives in one of Planet Earth’s enduring democracies – Barbados. Faria isn’t going anywhere, not even in Guyana, a country that is 83, 000 square miles, that has vastly wealthier people than Barbados yet thousands of Guyanese are flocking that island of 166 square miles in search of a better life.

Faria’s friends have been in power in Guyana for over sixteen years yet Faria isn’t interested in living in Guyana. Living in Barbados, too, and quite happily so, is pro-PPP propagandist, Rickey Singh.

In this life, one cannot demand respect. I will not request others to respect me and I will decide to whom I will show moral admiration. I have no recognition for Rickey Singh as a media functionary. I disagreed when UWI bestowed an honorary doctorate on him.

I concede that Singh does not need my blessing but at least I have the right to inform my readers how I feel about him. He has been running a Sunday Chronicle article since the PPP returned to power. His topics consist of consistent criticism of some of the some democratic societies in the world – the Caricom islands. But you do not read anything pointed from this about elected dictatorship, corruptibility and governmental immorality in Guyana. This man is extremely overbearing in his journalistic double standards.

His latest mischief centres on the Barbadian Prime Minister. Mr. Thompson has indicated that undocumented immigrants will have to report for bureaucratic processing or else face deportation. This is normal in any country.

Obscure, poor, unrecognized Guyana deports people if they overstay their visit or enter illegally. Imagine that! In his last Sunday Chronicle column, Singh lashed out at Mr. Thompson and did a journalistically dishonest thing. He wrote that Trinidad has more illegal migrants than Barbados yet is not behaving the way Barbados is doing.

How can one make such a foolish comparison? Trinidad has a stronger population, more land space and a vastly better economic prospect for migrants than Barbados. It can accommodate the hundreds of illegal Guyanese that presently live in Barbados.  The reality is that Barbados cannot accommodate the thousands of Guyanese that want to settle there.

Singh should encourage them to stay in Guyana and help vote the PPP out of power. Singh too should come back home. He has overstayed his welcome in Barbados